Category do cost cutting

With credit availability non existent or in sharp decline, a more transparent relationship between suppliers and customers is needed to overcome the credit hurdle. In times when money is short a very open relationship based on partnership will allow a chain of suppliers and customers to fulfill orders in a “joint venture per order” kind…

WinWeb has just updated their OnlineOffice accounting module, to include cost centre functionality.This allows you to "tag" expenses to products, departments, services or projects - giving you the opportunity to analyze the true cost of a department or any project.... This functionality is free of charge along with the 24/7 live support for all of WinWeb's software products - another reason to sign up to LiveNet of OnlineOffice for the free 30 days trail, if you do not like or need the full OnlineOffice functionality, you can use the accounting module, including the cost centre functionality, free of charge forever.This will give you financial information to make even better decisions.

Whatever your virtual service is, typing, bookkeeping, web-dasign, translations, telephone answering, diary management, PR, it does not matter with OnlineOffice and the Quick Switch facility you will easily stay in control.Accountants can use this in the same fashion, so when a client calls, "switch" to the up-to-date data and give advice.... Combine this with the benefits of online technology and it eco-friendly impact, and you will be excused for feeling good about your business.To use this technology, all you need is your find your LiveNet ID - in My LiveNet > My Profile - give it to your client and he/she can set you up as a user on their OnlineOffice system and restrict what you have access to.This means you can work for anyone in the world who uses OnlineOffice, or you can add contractors, virtual assistants, freelancers or free agents to your system at will.

This question is hard to answer, because there are no simple answers here and the outcome of this situation could easily be fatal to the business and if you are personally guaranteeing this money - and you probably are - this could potentially be very serious for your personal life too.The things that you need to do, in my opinion are: Find out why?... Many years ago someone made the the umbrella analogy and it goes like this: When the sun is shining your bank gives you an umbrella (O/D, Loan);when it is raining, they need the umbrella themselves.It is best if you do everything possible to not need banks in the first place, by bootstrapping, outsourcing, planning your business and keeping your fixed costs as low as possible.Remember sometimes, attack is the best defense even with banks, they may need their money, but they do not need bad publicity either.

Examples are rent, some employee costs, property taxes, telephone, heating and interest/bank expense.As opposed to "Variable Costs", they only occur in proportion to activity within the business and hopefully that will lead to sales and revenue.Why should I keep my "Fixed Costs" as low as possible?So when I talk about outsourcing, I'm talking about changing fixed cost into variable cost.... And depending how often you are in or out of your office, the 50 inclusive calls are probably enough to cover your needs.Should that not be the case, then you have "variable costs" of $1 per call, which means you are out of the office, working or enjoying life while it is quiet, for example during holiday season.

Let me give you some pointers here, but please remember you can always do more on the cost-cutting front in any small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants.... Or have it done on a results basis, doesn't cost you time and gets you money back.Do credit control - get your money in lower your bank overdraft cost and charges.This is only a short list of what you can do, but it's a start.

As many of you know by know I'm a sucker for bootstrapping for small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, and outsourcing is a big part of my bootstrapping philosophy, so here a re a few pointers: To outsource, or not to outsource ....... or you new service provider makes you feel, as if they are doing you a favor, don't deal with them, you need partners and not people you feel guilty calling.Nobody answers the phone - put the phone down and do not call back.

All the tools you need for this are available free of charge in our OnlineOffice.Once you start planning your cash-flow you will understand your business much better, and you will see that there are other ways to create cash-flow too, outsourcing and credit control for instance.... Get creative!As always with questions, I do not have all the answers, so please if you can add anything here do so for the benefit of the person who asked the question and everybody else, leave a comment below.

More important than that, you will learn new things about your business: You may have higher (good) or lower (bad) sales, than you expected?Your cost in your business may be higher (bad) or lower (better) than you expected?Your cash-flow may be better or worse do to the above two points?You may need to outsource some business processes to lower your fixed cost structure, to make your business more recession proof or just more profitable?You may need to ramp up your sales and marketing activities for your small business products or services?You may also have to adjust your SWOT analysis and your business goals?You will be surprised how creative you can be, once you know about and understand a problem in your business plan.... There is no excuse not to do it, all the tools are available for free, for anyone.If you feel the initial process of business planning is too much for you, than get your accountant or bookkeeper to help you to set your cash-flow fore-casting, SWOT analysis with you, doing it online will give you strategic advantages, like you can work with your accountant or bookkeeper in real time in different places, this lowers your cost, no time wasted and is good for the environment.I would like to make one more point here, the aim of all this planning is not to get it spot on - no, the aim is to understand what is happening in your business, that is why you should be doing it.

The government set out it's plans to get small business owners to pay more tax, they increased capital gains tax by 90%.... Keep your fixed cost down, make sure you have reserves, keep up with your credit control, here I had to help him with most answers.I've been talking about "bootstrapping" or "cost-cutting" for a long while now, with business planning as an additional tool, to combat any surprises.